2015-04-22

Media conspiracy on Europe's destruction

Let me first state forthrightly my opinion:

If Europe opens its doors to every African and Asian person who wants to come,
so many will accept that
there will be no more (cultural) Europe,
only a melange of Africa and Asia moved to
the geographical peninsula of Asia that we call Europe.
But that view does not seem to be presented
in the dominant print media of the American "elite",
the New York Times and the Washington Post.
Rather, they move in lockstep on this issue,
as they do on so many other issues that can be grouped under the loose term "political correctness".
As evidence of that assertion,
below are the two editorials from those newspapers, on 20 April 2015,
that address this issue.
Can you see any significant difference between them?

(Such agreement on so many issues is quite unlikely to happen just by random chance.
I believe there is a common cause,
that may be suggested by the phrase "It came from Brandeis (University).")



2015-04-20-NYT-europes-duty-on-migrants
Europe's Duty on Migrants
New York Times Editorial, 2015-04-20

The high season of migration from Africa to Europe has begun, bringing with it a new wave of tragic drownings in the Mediterranean. Last year, more than 3,200 people died crossing the Mediterranean. This year, 900 people have already drowned, and on Saturday a boat carrying hundreds more capsized in the Mediterranean north of Libya. Unless Europe acts to reform its policy on migration, 2015 could be the deadliest year yet for the thousands of people who fled to Libya from conflict-torn regions across the Middle East and Africa, only to find Libya equally dangerous.

Obviously Europe is the safer place to be. But migrants cannot request legal asylum in Europe unless they actually set foot on European soil. This makes them easy prey for well-organized smugglers who offer passage across the Mediterranean - for a price, and on unseaworthy boats.

Italy’s Mare Nostrum marine rescue program, created after more than 350 people drowned off Lampedusa in October 2013, rescued 130,000 people last year. But the program was too costly for Italy to continue, and was replaced in January by the much smaller European Triton border patrol program. Triton’s budget is only one-third what Mare Nostrum’s was, and operates only within 30 nautical miles of Europe’s shores. Fortunately, the Italian coast guard and navy have stepped in and continue to patrol waters near Libya, but they cannot handle the current influx without more help. An astonishing 8,480 migrants were rescued last weekend alone.

Europe’s border security agency, Frontex, says that between 500,000 and one million migrants are massed in Libya waiting to set forth for Europe, compared to the 170,000 who arrived in Europe by sea last year. But those figures have been challenged, and in any case the argument that Europe simply can’t afford to take in any more migrants from the Middle East and Africa is also suspect: Turkey has taken in 1.7 million Syrians; Lebanon another 1.2 million.

The European Commission is expected to unveil a new policy in May aimed at sharing the burden among member states, finding more legal avenues for people to come to Europe and setting up immigration screening centers in Africa and the Middle East. The key is to get all 28 member states to support and finance these reforms. With no coherent policy and woefully insufficient funding, lives are needlessly being put at risk, and the European Union’s humanitarian values are exposed as meaningless.



2015-04-20-WP-the-merciless-sea
Europe needs to take a lead role in solving the African migrant crisis
Washington Post Editorial, 2015-04-20

ITALIAN PRIME Minister Matteo Renzi said during a visit to The Post on Friday that the only way to stem the flood of African migrants seeking refuge in Europe was for “the tribes” of Libya “to make peace.” While there is truth in that observation, it understates the obligation of Italy and other European nations to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe. That became tragically clear over the weekend, as a vessel estimated to be carrying 700 or more people capsized off the Libyan coast. Only 28 people were rescued as of Monday, which means the death toll could be the highest in the Mediterranean since World War II.

Mr. Renzi is right that Libya is at the root of a crisis that last year caused 170,000 people to travel to Italy by sea — and tens of thousands more so far this year. Many of the migrants are from sub-Saharan Africa, Somalia or even Syria; but most board boats in Libya, often under the direction of smuggling networks. Some originally sought refuge in that once-wealthy north African oil state, only to be driven to leave by its civil war and the appearance of terrorist groups associated with the Islamic State.

It’s also true that an end to Libya’s disorder will require a political settlement among its feuding sides, which currently include two competing governments, each of which is backed by foreign powers. A United Nations mediator said Sunday that 80 percent of a draft peace proposal had been agreed to, but that may sound too optimistic: It’s not clear that either government controls the armed forces nominally fighting for them.

In the meantime, thousands of desperate people are packing onto boats with the coming of spring. The International Organization for Migration says about 10,000 were picked up by the Italian coast guard and other boats in just six days beginning April 10; it says 950 died en route this year even before the weekend disaster. The director of the European Union’s border control agency said recently that between 500,000 and 1 million people were waiting to leave Libya.

Only the European Union can help these migrants, especially once they take to the sea. Shamefully, however, governments under pressure from domestic anti-immigrant parties have shrunk from the task. Last year Italy undertook its own, much-praised operation to rescue people from boats, saving many; but it was scaled back in October after other governments declined to join in and some complained, wrongheadedly, that the effort itself might be attracting migrants. In recent months a much smaller E.U. search-and-rescue mission has been limited to Italy’s territorial waters, making it far more likely that sinkings and other accidents will lead to mass deaths.

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